Different tool solutions are known for transporting wind turbine tower sections, almost all based on chocks
Chocks are a very important element for the stable and safe fastening of the wind turbine tower sections during their movement or storage and therefore, it is difficult for substantial innovations to them, with the introduction of wind turbines and increased transport of large elements, including tower sections, a fresh boost to the research and use of fixing and fastening elements designed for transport and storage has been achieved.
The inventions either related to chocks or the same basis of the support tool for the transport of the wind turbine tower sections show both the age of these elements and the countless uses they have and as can be seen in ES2181146 patent, that show a railway crossbeam based on the principle of two shoes with a metal joint between them; ES2113171 patent in which a chock for industrial vehicles is described; DE3702792, EP0253116, GB2104482, U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,291 and WO09729978 inventions concerning metal containers for cylindrical tanks and their transport and finally the EP1465789 patent that shows tools for transporting wind turbine elements. But in no event are these inventions similar to the tool that is the object of this invention.
The applicant initially developed a support tool based on a metal square in which the base of the support was supported on the transport vehicle and the vertical plate was screwed to two of the anchoring holes of the ring with the rest of the tower sections.
This support tool badly damaged the tower structure, since all the weight of the tower section fell on the four holes (two on each side of the section) where the support tool was anchored and due to this and accelerations and inertial forces caused during transport, occasionally distorted the holes of the clamps and even distortions were registered in the section rings themselves, making subsequent assembly of the tower in the field more difficult.
As a result of the effects produced by the initially developed support, another tool was developed in which the loads were transmitted to a wooden support and the structure was fixed by four different points to a vertical metal plate, so that the holes on the tower section on which the tool was screwed hardly supported the forces, as both the weight and the accelerations fell on the wooden supports. This invention is included in the P200500915 patent application.
Another important factor in large-sized part transport is the means of transport chosen, as depending on what measure is used, different transport needs are foreseen.
Wind turbine transport is carried out either by road, railway or by sea. In road and railway transport the tower sections are consecutively placed on the different support tools, while in sea transport the sections are piled on top of others so that the space is made better use of.
Given that currently known solutions do not provide a transport tool that allows transporting any type of tower section by any means of transport, different types of tools are used depending on the section of tower to be transported and depending on the means of transport used.